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Asymbol/Brain Farm's "Why I Skate"

Asymbol and Brain Farm -- two of the biggest names in action-sports art and media -- have teamed up to run the "Why I Skate" photo contest, which invites photographers both amateur and professional to submit images that define their motivation for rolling around every day. Curt Morgan, Ty Evans and Tim Zimmerman will act as the judges' panel and choose a winner, while a separate Voters' Choice winner will be determined by ballots cast online. Entries and votes will be accepted through June 12 via either company's Facebook page.

"This image is very reductive, with only the silhouette, but it has that kind of feel of 'Endless Summer.' Just a kid and his skateboard. But very strong -- the silhouette is very interesting profile." -- Alex Hillinger

"It's an awesome composition overall. It's really kind of got this almost Eastern European feeling in the background with the barbed wire and the plane and the way that the photo has juxtaposed the skater against the plane. The caption was really cool: 'Fly like a plane.'" -- Alex Hillinger

"There's incredible backstory to this one; apparently they had to rappel down into that tunnel. This one just blows me away; it's just gorgeous imagery. The texture of the surface of the cement almost reminds me of photos of the slot canyons in Utah. The overall way the photographer worked with light and shadow ... it has everything going on." -- Alex Hillinger

"This one is interesting because it's different than all the other photos. The first thing we really liked was the perspective -- it's shot up high -- and that the rider and their shadow are playing off each other. It's a girl skating, and we don't have that many submissions of girl skaters. I really liked the feel of concentration; it's not a halfhearted thing, it's a fully committed sort of ollie. Those wheels are awesome, too, the way the orange pops off the page. In other ways it's really reductive." -- Alex Hillinger

"Whereas a lot of the photos are the kind of solo solitary skater, this one is very dynamic; the rider has become part of the collage. You've got all this graffiti art and the layers and the stairs, and the way that the different angles of the stair rails work with where the rider is. It's very busy, but it works." -- Alex Hillinger

"This one is almost like a performance piece -- like under a single spotlight, and the rider is almost illuminated from off to the side. It has a real kind of drama. The single, solitary bench with nothing else -- no foreground, no background, just rider and bench, really kind of simplified. Compositionally it's got everything right going on." -- Alex Hillinger

"This is a classic, sort of old-school-looking shot -- the angulation of the rider, all bones and legs. The way that the shot is taken completely off-axis, too -- the horizon is almost vertical, which is opposed to how you would normally want to shoot, to show how vertical the rider is. The photographer flattened it out." -- Alex Hillinger

"This was taken in Barcelona. I really liked the super-strong composition, but also there are a bunch of tourists completely oblivious to what's going on behind them. It's also on this kind of non-skateable surface, on this rough-looking bunker. This captures very much an instant." -- Alex Hillinger

Ariyoshi, kickflip. "I really like the crosswalk; it adds a really interesting element to it -- almost like a reference to The Beatles' 'Abbey Road.' The kind of rock-star pose, in a way, of the guy doing the kickflip: he's throwing his arm out and pointing his fingers to the sky. I'm pretty sure this was taken in Japan. There's really good depth to it; otherwise, it's simple." -- Alex Hillinger

Asymbol and Brain Farm -- two of the biggest names in action-sports art and media -- have teamed up to run the "Why I Skate" photo contest, which invites photographers both amateur and professional to submit images that define their motivation for rolling around every day. Curt Morgan, Ty Evans and Tim Zimmerman will act as the judges' panel and choose a winner, while a separate Voters' Choice winner will be determined by ballots cast online. Entries and votes will be accepted through June 12 via either company's Facebook page.

"This image is very reductive, with only the silhouette, but it has that kind of feel of 'Endless Summer.' Just a kid and his skateboard. But very strong -- the silhouette is very interesting profile." -- Alex Hillinger

"It's an awesome composition overall. It's really kind of got this almost Eastern European feeling in the background with the barbed wire and the plane and the way that the photo has juxtaposed the skater against the plane. The caption was really cool: 'Fly like a plane.'" -- Alex Hillinger

"There's incredible backstory to this one; apparently they had to rappel down into that tunnel. This one just blows me away; it's just gorgeous imagery. The texture of the surface of the cement almost reminds me of photos of the slot canyons in Utah. The overall way the photographer worked with light and shadow ... it has everything going on." -- Alex Hillinger

"This one is interesting because it's different than all the other photos. The first thing we really liked was the perspective -- it's shot up high -- and that the rider and their shadow are playing off each other. It's a girl skating, and we don't have that many submissions of girl skaters. I really liked the feel of concentration; it's not a halfhearted thing, it's a fully committed sort of ollie. Those wheels are awesome, too, the way the orange pops off the page. In other ways it's really reductive." -- Alex Hillinger

"Whereas a lot of the photos are the kind of solo solitary skater, this one is very dynamic; the rider has become part of the collage. You've got all this graffiti art and the layers and the stairs, and the way that the different angles of the stair rails work with where the rider is. It's very busy, but it works." -- Alex Hillinger

"This one is almost like a performance piece -- like under a single spotlight, and the rider is almost illuminated from off to the side. It has a real kind of drama. The single, solitary bench with nothing else -- no foreground, no background, just rider and bench, really kind of simplified. Compositionally it's got everything right going on." -- Alex Hillinger

"This is a classic, sort of old-school-looking shot -- the angulation of the rider, all bones and legs. The way that the shot is taken completely off-axis, too -- the horizon is almost vertical, which is opposed to how you would normally want to shoot, to show how vertical the rider is. The photographer flattened it out." -- Alex Hillinger

"This was taken in Barcelona. I really liked the super-strong composition, but also there are a bunch of tourists completely oblivious to what's going on behind them. It's also on this kind of non-skateable surface, on this rough-looking bunker. This captures very much an instant." -- Alex Hillinger

Ariyoshi, kickflip. "I really like the crosswalk; it adds a really interesting element to it -- almost like a reference to The Beatles' 'Abbey Road.' The kind of rock-star pose, in a way, of the guy doing the kickflip: he's throwing his arm out and pointing his fingers to the sky. I'm pretty sure this was taken in Japan. There's really good depth to it; otherwise, it's simple." -- Alex Hillinger

Kostas Mandilas

Courtesy Asymbol/Brain Farm

Chris Loupis, frontside 180, Thiva, Greece. "This photo's got some really cool kind of fisheye effect. It's got the light -- the way the sun flare is coming through the edge of the pipe is really cool. There's nothing glam about it at all. It's core." -- Alex Hillinger